Page 20 of The Scars of Us

“Any other family?”

Her skin paled as her eyes widened. “No.”

Okay, not a good topic. Maybe we have more in common than I thought.“What do you do for work?”

Her face relaxed, and color began to return to her cheeks. “I’m a Project Coordinator for a marketing and public relations firm in Boston.”

“Sounds boring.”

She looked offended, but laughed. “Thanks. Not everyone gets to work out for a living.”

“It’s pretty awesome,” I admitted. We were nearing the exit doors, so my time with her was running out. “What do you like to do for fun?”

I opened the door for her as she answered, “I love to go dancing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when I ask you out.”

She laughed again; this had to be the most I’d ever seen her do so. I was getting somewhere, finally.

“Anything else that might help my chances?”

She stopped by a black, Acura TL before leaning against it, facing me.

“You don’t want to get involved with me,” she said with a half-hearted smile.

“Oh, yeah? Why not?” I replied as I stepped closer to her.Always fighting me.

Her eyes watched me warily. This close to her, I could see so many different hues of blue and green that made up the unique shade of her eyes. They really were beautiful. “I just… I have a lot of issues.”

“Don’t we all?” I asked in a rhetorical tone.I know I do.

She chuckled softly, “Not like mine.”

“You tell me yours, I’ll tell you mine.”What am I saying? I don’t want to her to know about my past—do I?

“That’s never going to happen,” she replied matter-of-factly, an unspoken challenge present in her eyes.

“Never say never.” I smirked while backing away. “Goodnight, Kaiya.”

I didn’t need to say anything else that I might regret, like telling her my whole life story.Why does she make me feel so different? Why do I want to open up to her?

Shaking her head, she smiled as she got into her car. As I turned around, I couldn’t help but think,Tuesday can’t come fast enough.

My body still thrummed with adrenaline from a combination of class and touching Ryker. It amazed me how just being close to him made me feel so alive, like I hadn’t really been living until I met him. Honestly, I really hadn’t.

Kaleb had made me afraid to live, afraid to trust anyone. But with Ryker, I felt there was a chance that I could open up to him, and that scared the living shit out of me.If I couldn’t even trust Kaleb, how could I trust Ryker?

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I started my car to drive home. I didn’t want to think about anything negative when I was feeling so good, when I actually felt… happy. I knew completing one self-defense class wasn’t very significant for most people, but it was huge—absolutely huge—for me. One of the many steps I needed to take to reclaim my life and eliminate the power Kaleb had over me.

My stomach growled as I walked into my apartment, so I headed straight for the kitchen to look for something quick to throw together for dinner.

As I rifled through the refrigerator, I heard Kamden call out, “I ordered a pizza—figured you wouldn’t want to cook.”

His voice had increased in volume as he walked from wherever he was in the apartment into the kitchen. When I closed the refrigerator door, I turned to see him standing in the doorway. “How was class? Everything go okay?” he asked with concern.

“Yeah, everything went fine,” I shrugged. “I was a little nervous at first, but Ryker worked with me one-on-one to make sure I was comfortable,” I continued as I searched for the pizza, which I found right on the counter next to the refrigerator.So observant.

“Ryker’s the instructor?” Kamden questioned. He sounded a bit bothered by the idea.

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